There are few more dangerous places a photo-journalist can be sent on assignment than into the darkest reaches of the human mind.

In a stark new exhibition set to open next month, ­controversial Scottish photographer David Boni has attempted to capture the breathtakingly cathartic moments in which six women confront the most psychologically traumatic moments of their lives head-on.

Tackling a range of deeply personal issues including bereavement, adultery, neglect and rape, the images capture the instant a team of volunteers from the anonymous social-networking site Pencourage.com - billed as the "Anti-Facebook" - destroy objects intrinsically associated with their profound and often shocking personal scars: an abuse survivor burns a tent in which she was assaulted; another woman who struggled with alcohol takes a gun to a bottle of booze.

Boni, whose stark shot of The Stranglers band members dangling from nooses in a children's playground sparked global controversy when it was released as the cover of the band's Giants album in 2012, said: "We live in a world where our image of people's lives is skewed, where practically all we see is an endless Facebook stream of little white lies - perfect pictures of perfect moments that leave out the pain, the problems and the sadness.

"These photographs are an attempt to counterbalance that sanitised idea of reality by ­showing what people really are: ordinary folk with extraordinary stories."

Conceived and shot in Glasgow, where Pencourage.com has this month been formally launched following a year of testing, the exhibition - Behind The Social Media Mask - captures the most intimate thoughts of six women through a series of series of blunt, jarring images that tell the story of the biggest challenge each has encountered in their lives.

Boni, whose work on campaigns for Wonderbra and Manchester United has made him one of the world's most sought-after commercial photographers, added: "The women who volunteered for the project had the most extraordinary courage. While others might bow to pressure to portray themselves as enjoying the perfect lifestyle, they were prepared to step into the light and show the raw. It was profoundly moving."

The exhibition, which opens in London this January and will also visit Glasgow and Edinburgh if willing venues can be found, shows each volunteer annihilating an emotionally charged object chosen to represent her story.

Samantha Lammas, 21, from Essex, spent years on heavy medication as a result of severe depression caused by being sexually assaulted while at a festival when she was 16.

Fuelling her own recovery by forging a deep relationship with her foster sister, she found real value in taking a flamethrower to a camping tent similar to the one where her innocence was stolen.

She said: "Prior to the shoot, my feelings were a mixture of excitement and painful anxiousness. I felt camouflaged and hidden in my make-up but the reality is that I was ashamed, unprepared, nervous and unaccepting.

"Throughout the shoot, my emotions got darker, but after having taken the time to process the events, I am overcome with the raw emotion of empowerment. I was bared to the camera without my usual coverage of heavy make-up. I am proud of myself and my story."

All of the project participants have such a story to tell. All are diarists on Pencourage.com, set up by a group of Scottish developers to bridge the enormous gulf between what people actually say and what they really think.

One, who chose to remain anonymous, revealed her experience of a neglected ­childhood being raised by drug-addicted parents. Her catharsis was to take a chainsaw to the ornate ­Moroccan door - carried as a memento throughout her life - behind which she was told to wait while her parents got high.

The third woman in the series, billed only as Scarlett, used a shotgun to blow into smithereens a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey, symbolising a lonely period in her life during which she lessened the pain of an unhappy marriage by snatching brief moments drinking and sleeping with a work colleague who was ultimately unable to provide the comfort and ­commitment she needed.

51-year-old Judy Body from Axbridge chose to document her battle with cancer via a shot in which she dissolves her ­colostomy bag in a bubbling vat of acid, while 26-year-old Becky Dartnall of Southampton was photographed in her unused wedding veil - taking an angle grinder to the chair in which her fiance wasted endless hours on video games before his unexpected death of a heart attack aged 29.

The sixth participant, known only as "Anon de Plume", was the driver of a car that skidded and overturned on a notoriously dangerous bend in the road following a night out, ­killing her childhood friend. Despite there being no evidence of fault she had lived with the guilt for years, embracing the shoot as an opportunity to finally exorcise her past by smashing up a car ­windscreen with an axe.

She said: "Every time I hear a certain song playing, or hear a car skid or slam on its brakes, I feel a cold blanket shiver across my scalp and time stands still. But, if I can live through this, I can live through anything. I'm still here, living and breathing, and I hope that this series of journals inspires someone else to seek help for their own trauma."

Peter Clayton, founder of Pencourage.com, said: "When we look back in 20 years on the social media feeds of today, what will they tell us? That we all shared a universal interest of what everyone else had for breakfast? Or that judging by our profile pictures we spent our entire lives snowboarding and lounging in swimming pools?

"None of that has any real value or any truth, and that's what we founded Pencourage.com to combat. It's a network for people to share real things that truly matter and anonymously record the moments - both joyful and sad - that actually mean something."

Behind The Social Media Mask - Everyone Has A Story, opens at Hoxton Arches gallery, Shoreditch, on January 13 in partnership with Ovarian Cancer Action.

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